Why won't my PC restart properly?

In what I can only describe as an ironic turn of events, I received a question about PC support from a Hewlett-Packard Technical Support Specialist. Fortunately I didn't have to guess about the possible causes of his customers' Windows XP Home Edition system being unable to properly restart when that option was selected, because I turned to my friend and colleague Jim Boyce for his expert opinion. Here's how the dialog went:

    Why won't my PC restart?

And, yes, we are hoping for an "incident resolution fee" from HP. Doesn't that seem fair?